Tag: Abide

What begins as an exciting vision—with big plans, eager hands, and an exciting dream of what is to come can sometimes feel more like…

Swinging without an ax head (2 Kings 6:5) 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!”

Literally meaning “it was begged” for. During the reign of King Saul, the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get all their iron plows, sickles, and axes sharpened, and still after 200 years, iron was precious and the cost was steep. There were no extra resources in this vision, unlike when you are putting together something from Ikea. All of a sudden there is a disconnection between what the prophet has and what he needs. With the loss of the iron ax head, suddenly he was facing a debt he was unable to pay, he was staring into the dark water which probably felt like a black hole, he would be hit with a bone-crushing debt- no more being a prophet, it would be time to become a slave. An ax head, something that seemed so small, and yet without it the entire project comes to a standstill. The vision has devolved into a vexing problem.

I was reminded of the problem of disconnection just this week. I was on the phone with someone who had called for advice and so I listened, probably for 15 minutes, listening intently with ideas formulating in my head, and when they opened the floor, it was one of my finest moments, the words made sense, I was surprising myself, thoughts were crisp and flowing, for a minute, minute 15 it was like I was a Gatlin-gun of good ideas. Continue reading “Disconnected”